Brighton on tour

Terence Sheehy catches up with Archbishop Barbarito and hears powerful words on the laity
AT THE RECENT reception given by Bishop Cormac Murphy O'Connor, Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, at his home in Storrington, in Sussex, in honour of His Excellency, the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio, Archbishop Luigi Barbarito, on the occasion of his official visit to the diocese, I was also happy to meet with leaders of the other Christian Churches in Surrey and Sussex.
The diocese of Arundel and Brighton lies across the Church of England dioceses of Chichester and Guildford. The Rt Rev Eric Kemp, Bishop of Chichester, was unavoidably absent, as he was in the House of Lords, helping to defeat Mr Baker's Educational Bill.
I talked with the Rt Rev Michael Adie, Bishop of Guildford, and enquired after his retired predecessor, Bishop Pike, a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, and a member of that family famous for its Irish International Rugby players. I was glad to hear that Bishop Pike was very much alive and well.
The last time I met this largerthan-life and jolly Irish bishop, he was giving a talk to the National University of Ireland Club in London. At the beginning of his speech he placed a large old-fashioned alarm clock on the rostrum, timed to rattle off a warning bell after he had been speaking for some 20 minutes. A lot of preachers could take a cue from him when giving a homily.
The leaders of the Christian Churches meeting with His Excellency and the Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, in addition to the Bishop of Guildford, included the Rev Peter Tongeman, General Superintendent of the South Eastern Area of the Baptist Union, the Rev David Helyar, Moderator of the Southern Province of the United Reformed Church, and the Rev Colin Rowe, Methodist Chairman of the London South West District, (pictured here).
On this first visit of the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Arundel and Brighton, I recalled how our correspondent in Australia once told me that when His Excellency was Apostolic Delegate in Australia, before coming to Britain, he made it his business to move through every diocese in Australia to meet with the hierarchy, religious and laity.
His Excellency came to Storrington after a highly successful ecumenical visit to Scotland. In the course of his four-day Arundel and Brighton visit, he met with some 125 priests from all over the diocese at Ladywell Convent, Godaiming. He also addressed the meeting of the Diocesan Pastoral Council; some 250 priests and people, at the Cardinal Newman School in Hove.
He met with 100 young people from Surrey, West Sussex and East Sussex, and, at St George's Retreat House, near Burgess Hill, met with 250 nuns and some monks. He also spent some time with the Carmelite Sisters at Chichester.
Bishop Cormac MurphyO'Connor leads his people from the front, and shows a deep pastoral concern for the young, the old, the sick and the handicapped. (Archbishop Barbarito referred to his "gentle and inspiring leadership"). The bishop is the shepherd of some 154,000 Catholics in 120 parishes, in a diocese which has 87 convents.
In his address to the laity of the diocese, the Apostolic ProNuncio said, "The Catholic community is not the bishop, or the priests, or brothers and nuns, or lay men and women, separately; it is all of them, working together. No one part of the People of God does all the work, makes all the sacrifices, has all the successes . . .or failures. As vital organs of Christ's body, we all contribute to the health and vigour of the whole Church of Christ. I should like to stress the role of laypeople in building the Kingdom of God, the part Christ is asking them to play in the transformation of the
world in which we live." He went on to say; "Your mission, then, my dear lay men and women, is nothing less than to transform the world in which you live. This you will do most effectively through the example of your Catholic lives. In the family, most of all (which the Council called 'the domestic church'); for family life is seriously threatened these days."
". . . the Second Vatican Council emphasises the fact that Catholic social action is essentially the responsibility of lay men and women. It is for them to reduce to practice the principles to which papal documents draw their attention. These documents sometimes suggest models for action, but without indentifying the doctrine • with the model that illustrates its application. In such affairs, there is often no one 'Catholic' way of acting, no unique 'Catholic' solution to a problem; only a Catholic discernment of values that will choose what is likely to be the most effective approach in particular cases. The decision is for professionally competent people to make; and in political and social matters that means chiefly lay men and women."
"I know it is hard to realise that fidelity to your chosen secular occupation is your mission from Christ. But you will draw the necessary strength from prayer, the Mass, the Sacraments, meditation on the Word of God, the safe guidance of the supreme teaching authority in the Church, the Pope and the Bishops united with him."
His Excellency concluded by saying that the culture which ignored God and was motivated by greed, could be overcome, "by living a deep spiritual life centred in Christ and imbued with the Transcendence of God; by practising the law of love and sharing with the poor and needy; by restoring the sanctity of family life and conjugal love; by defending fundamental rights and freedoms and the sacredness of human life."
The press and photographic coverage of the visit of the Apostolic Pro-Nuncio to Arundel and Brighton were ably handled by Fr Tony Churchill and Fr Tom Treherne. Other dioceses please copy.